This morning my son set out to Long Island in his MC5 to bring donated food and clothing items to the victims of hurricane sandy. He will be making stops along the way to pick up donations. After that he will return home, make another round of pickups and head out for NJ. His Girlfriend and her mother organized the relief effort with their local Rotary. My wife and I helped him load up some local donations before they headed out, talk about "stuff a bus" I hope they have room for everything. I think he is going to make a youtube video of the event, if he does I will be sure to post it here. It's moments like this that sure make a parent proud. :-) Hears a little video of the bus.

I just got off the phone with my son, he is in the Kingston NY. area. He pulled into a service station to top off the tank and he lost all oil pressure. Lets hope this is not to serious, keeping my fingers crossed.

At this point he is getting towed off the interstate and will be looking for a motel. The rotary is going to rent some uhauls so they can unload the bus and finish the delivery. They are having trouble finding bigger uhauls because of the storm. Looks like I will be footing a BIG towing bill back to Vermont. He said he added some oil, but it really did not need any, and started the engine so he could move away from the pumps, but the engine started making a loud squeaking noise and he shut it down immediately, still no oil pressure. Looks like a rebuild is in the future.

The bus has an 8v71 non turbo. Once Nick explained what they were doing the towing company said he could leave the bus at their facility for a couple of weeks because it was important that the supplies got to the people who need them, the driver did not have a problem towing the bus fully loaded, so that helped. He checked into a hotel last night and I suspect they will be looking for a u haul, or something similar this morning. I haven't heard from him yet, but I will keep everyone posted as to what is going on. I was under the impression that they were making two trips, one for Long Island and a second for N.J, but apparently they loaded half the bus for Long Island and half for N.J. They make the first delivery's in Long Island, come back to the bus and load up for the second delivery in N.J

I am assuming he lost in at the mechanical, but that is only my assumption, he did not specify. He is conserving his cell phone battery, so communication is somewhat slow at this time. I will be sure to ask him next time he call and let you know.

I just talked to Nick and I was wrong, it was the electrical gauge on the dash, but yeah he said the engine shook, rattled and squealed, he is convinced it's toast. At this time he has gotten a u haul and a trailer large enough to hold all the donations and make his delivery's in one trip. Only problem is the lights dont work on the trailer, but the u haul guys are working on that. A Rotary member has offered to put them up for the night.

I hate to hear that but it's pretty unusual to lose the oil pump in a Detroit like that without a lot of fore warning. If it were me, I would check the mechanical, then look at the oil after a very short run. It could be as simple and a broken injector line pouring fuel into the crankcase.

Also, I think I have a set of .010 rod and main bearings plus thrust bearings for that engine.

Thinking about it, it could have blown out one of the relief valves, but you would have to ask Clifford or Don about that.

I just talked to Nick and I was wrong, it was the electrical gauge on the dash, but yeah he said the engine shook, rattled and squealed, he is convinced it's toast. At this time he has gotten a u haul and a trailer large enough to hold all the donations and make his delivery's in one trip. Only problem is the lights dont work on the trailer, but the u haul guys are working on that. A Rotary member has offered to put them up for the night.

Thanks Just Dallas: I expect him to call before he gets settled for the night and can charge his cell phone. I will let him know, and I will also tell him what you said. According to Nick there was no prior warning, everything was going fine. They stopped for a short time, got back in the bus and went about six miles down the road and he decided to top off the tank, pulled into the service station and everything went to #$%. It sounded to me like the engine was squeaking so much that he didn't dare drive it and had it towed away from the pumps, so he might not be able to take a short drive and check the oil, but he might be able to tell by just checking the oil without the drive?

I will let him know about the bearings, we just might be in the market for a set.